Dive Brief:
- Square is partnering with digital signage provider Raydiant to integrate digital signs and menus with Square’s POS enabling restaurants to automatically update them, the companies announced Thursday.
- The integration includes Raydiant’s self-service kiosks, digital menus and back-of-house processes. The companies said the integration will create more engaging in-store experiences for diners and workers and simplify back-end processes.
- New digital integrations could differentiate Square within an increasingly competitive point-of-sale and fintech category, including players like Oracle, NCR and Toast.
Dive Insight:
This diversification may also help insulate Square from the kinds of mass layoffs several restaurant tech companies have announced as funding dries up due to macroeconomic headwinds. The integration will allow Square’s POS data to be used to update item availability in real time. On the Raydiant digital menu app, customers will have the ability to choose how they view a menu — selecting by category or hiding product details, for example. Multiple stores can be managed at once, so managers can modify pricing or schedule menu boards.
By reducing or removing these manual processes from employees’ task lists, the integration could also strengthen restaurants’ employee retention as the industry continues to grapple with a labor shortage. The partnership will allow restaurants to turn employee sales data into contests and games to promote competition between employees. The companies note that sales can be tracked by employee, location and other metrics to reward high performers and incentivize workers.
Square’s competitors have entered similar partnerships as operators seek to integrate their disparate tech systems. In April, for example, Toast partnered with Delphi Display Systems to enhance the drive-thru ordering experience. Acrelec Kiosks and Digital Menu Boards integrated with NCR’s Aloha POS system in July, and Revel recently partnered with Voxie, an AI-driven SMS consumer marketing platform.
Digital signage like Raydiant’s offerings can help operators upsell, increase sales and better engage with consumers. A study from Nielsen found that 80% of business owners who use in-store digital signage saw as much as a 33% boost in sales versus those who use static signage. As more consumers return to dine-in and prefer to use self-service kiosks, the Raydiant and Square integration can help operators capture their attention and customize menu and pricing instantaneously, the companies said.
